Absurdism in Sinister Hues Under the Stage's Big Tent

Step right up, ladies and gents, come one, come all. Behind the curtain and balls of smoke lies the most bizarre new attraction this side of Coney Island, and it arrives downtown courtesy of that team of mad scientists the National Theater of the United States of America, an increasingly hyped collective that has gained a cult following among adventurous theatergoers.

An hourlong absurdist spectacle with a seemingly endless title, "The Perilous Failure of ABSN: RJAB (Abacus Black Strikes NOW!: The Rampant Justice of Abacus Black)" is certainly not for the faint of heart or the conventional of mind, but those who like a little Vincent Price with their avant-garde theater will be pleased. The script -- credited to the cast members James Stanley and Normandy Sherwood -- wastes no time in getting your attention. Out of the dark, murky space comes a strangely compelling figure in 18th-century clothes, Chad Montgomery (Stanley), who speaks in a conspiratorial voice.

He approaches the audience with a halogen lamp and welcomes it to a meeting of like minds. Long pause. Then he says that he will reveal something truly remarkable, a living 600-year-old man who came to the New World looking for gold. Soon after, the company jumps into action, building a makeshift proscenium stage, a sort of life-size Victorian toy theater that houses its mumbling and caged relic.

What follows is as murky and coherent as a drug-induced hallucination. Don't even try to follow a narrative. It darts around in too many directions to stick with one story, pausing for aggressively performed dance sequences (Jesse Hawley sells a number with the best of them), goofy interludes (like an appearance by the Devil in red tights) and adolescent jokes ("Jesus came to me, but not in a gay way").

The work of this nine-year-old company is often compared to Richard Foreman's, but while his emerge fully formed out of the one mysterious brain, "ABSN" is clearly the work of a committee: the stage is cluttered with many theatrical ideas and varying acting skills, although Mr. Stanley does stand out as a creepy figure whose nervousness seems to hide a profound unease. If the show doesn't always live up to his original promise, the oddities at a sideshow rarely do.

"The Perilous Failure of ABSN: RJAB" continues through Feb 12 at P.S. 122, 150 First Avenue, at East Ninth Street; (212) 477-5288.